| Year | Title and Author |
| 2015 | The Crossover by Kwame Alexander |
| 2014 | Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo |
| 2013 | The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, illustrated by Patricia Castelao |
| 2012 | Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos |
| 2011 | Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool |
| 2010 | When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead |
| 2009 | The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean |
| 2008 | Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz |
| 2007 | The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron |
| 2006 | Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins |
| 2005 | Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata |
| 2004 | The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo |
| 2003 | Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi |
| 2002 | A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park |
| 2001 | A Year down Yonder by Richard Peck |
| 2000 |
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis |
| 1999 | Holes by Louis Sachar |
| 1998 | Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse |
| 1997 | The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg |
| 1996 | The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman |
| 1995 | Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech |
| 1994 | The Giver by Lois Lowry |
| 1993 | Missing May by Cynthia Rylant |
| 1992 | Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor |
| 1991 | Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli |
| 1990 | Number the Stars by Lois Lowry |
| 1989 | Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman |
| 1988 | Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman |
| 1987 | The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman |
| 1986 | Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan |
| 1985 | The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley |
| 1984 | Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary |
| 1983 | Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt |
| 1982 | A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard |
| 1981 | Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson |
| 1980 | A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830–32 by Joan W. BIos |
| 1979 | The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin |
| 1978 | Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson |
| 1977 | Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylo |
| 1976 | The Grey King by Susan Cooper |
| 1975 | M. C. Higgins the Great by Virginia Hamilton |
| 1974 | The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox |
| 1973 | Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George |
| 1972 | Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien |
| 1971 | The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars |
| 1970 | Sounder by William H. Armstrong |
| 1969 | The High King by Lloyd Alexander |
| 1968 | From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg |
| 1967 | Up a Road Slowlv by Irene Hunt |
| 1966 | I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino |
| 1965 | Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska |
| 1964 | It’s Like This, Cat by Emily Neville |
| 1963 | A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle |
| 1962 | The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare |
| 1961 | Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell |
| 1960 | Onion John by Joseph Krumgold |
| 1959 | The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare |
| 1958 | Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith |
| 1957 | Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen |
| 1956 | Carry One, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham |
| 1955 | The Wheel on the School by Meindert De Jong |
| 1954 | …And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold |
| 1953 | Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark |
| 1952 | Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes |
| 1951 | Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates |
| 1950 | The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli |
| 1949 | King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry |
| 1948 | The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois |
| 1947 | Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey |
| 1946 | Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski |
| 1945 | Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson |
| 1944 | Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes |
| 1943 | Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray |
| 1942 | The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds |
| 1941 | Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry |
| 1940 | Daniel Boone by James Daugherty |
| 1939 | Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright |
| 1938 | The White Stag by Kate Seredy |
| 1937 | Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer |
| 1936 | Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink |
| 1935 | Dobry by Monica Shannon |
| 1934 | Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs |
| 1933 | Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis |
| 1932 | Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer |
| 1931 | The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth |
| 1930 | Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field |
| 1929 | The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly |
| 1928 | Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal |
| 1927 | Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James |
| 1926 | Shen of the Sea by Author Bowie Chrisman |
| 1925 | Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger |
| 1924 | The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes |
| 1923 | The Vovages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting |
| 1922 | The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon |